I bought this dwarf kumquat a little better than 20 years ago and put it in its current pot. It wasn’t doing very well the last couple of years but in trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it realized the uniqueness of the trunk. I went a little farther and dug around the base and discovered some beautiful nebari. You can guess what I want to do with it now. It’s only just starting to recover this season and it’s leafing nicely. It’s not balanced very well So I intend to do a graft farther down the leading branch. My quandary is what I should do when I remove the kumquat from it’s planter. It is, in effect, a yamadori after all. My question is; should I repot this season? And when I do repot should I move it to a smaller vessel but not one of a bonsai style, shallow pot? It’s current leaf structure (still sparse)suggests that it could tolerate a root trimming. I am new to bonsai so I guess my question is where do I go from here?
A photo would help!
Kumquats are evergreens, plus pretty cold hardy. Depending where you live, you COULD repot now, if you’re into a second flush of growth AND if you’ve got several months of warm weather left. (So: 8a or warmer?)
That said, best time to repot is still going to be after the tree exits dormancy in spring – after buds appear but before leaves burst.
Tried to upload a picture but it didn’t work. However,thanks for the sound advice. Kind of thought I should let it gain more strength. Need to learnto be more patient. I live in the Sacramento valley where we we just had two consecutive 100+degree days. Much better than last summer when it was 90 to 100 practically every day from June to early Sept. I will er on the side of caution. Thanks again.